Our Boat Club helped to make this the best Boat Parade IRB has ever seen!!!

Our Club’s boat WON…

1st Place:Indian Rocks Beach Lighted Boat Parade

1st Place:Indian Shores-Redington Lighted Boat Parade

2nd Place:Clearwater-Island Estates Lighted Boat Parade

Our hosts John and Joannie Pickens as we kicked off the first parade.

Special thanks to Karen & George Laufenburger for donating their boat and driving in the parade!

Madeira Beach Veterans Boat Parade

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

John Pickens was gracious enough to volunteer his boat for the day and our Boat Club members decorated it on Thursday and Friday. Riding on the boat were Staff Sergeant Mikey Gibbons, part of the special Air Force 820th Security Forces Group, stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, and six of his military friends (some active/some inactive) with their significant others. Staff Sergeant Gibbons has been deployed for four tours of duty in Iraq over the past four years. His official residence is Indian Rocks Beach and we are all very proud of the sacrifice he has made for his country. And, the boat won third place in its category…not too shabby.

Members of the IRB set sail from the 15th Avenue Boat Ramp and cleaned up all the islands near the city limits. Bill Sanders from Keep Pinellas Beautiful, that sponsors a county-wide pick-up program, supplied the group with trash bags, trash sticks, water and shirts.

Pictured above in left photo (left to right): The Baker Family, Savanah Bush, Jerry and Linda Newton, the Thayer family, Rich Antepenko, Wanda Partyka, Kitty Hanwerk and Boat Club President Bob Griffin. (Not shown: Bonner Keiko). Right Photo: The Baker Boat…Rod and Tracy donated the use of their boat. Pictured on their boat is Savanah Bush and Jerry and Linda Newton.

Our Island cookout and sunset celebration was a huge success! We had about 25 boats joining us with close to 100 people attending! The food was great and the weather was even better! An absolutely perfect evening-the kind boater’s dream of! We will definitely do this again!

First Boat Club Event/Dinner at the Pub on Friday, August 1st, 2008

Even with extreme low tides and inclement weather, our Boat Club’s very first event drew about 30 boaters and/or ride-a-longs who joined us for dinner at the Pub! A great first start to many more successful events!

We come a long way baby…since the very first meeting with 40 in attendance.